Case goes deep, to the justification for Iraq war

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, October 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - The criminal charges against the vice president's chief of staff are rooted in the controversy over the Bush administration's initial justification for invading Iraq.

With the U.S. military casualty rate in Iraq reaching the 2,000 mark this week and no weapons of mass destruction yet uncovered, the indictments against Lewis "Scooter" Libby could add fuel to the national debate about the wisdom of going to war.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday the indictments were "not about the propriety of the war." Nonetheless, the dispute over whether Saddam Hussein had stockpiled dangerous weapons sparked the legal case.

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The charges will force the revisiting of "the who, what, when and how about weapons of mass destruction prior to March 2003, when we went into Iraq," said Ivo Daalder, a national security expert at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution and a former Clinton administration official.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the case was "about how the Bush White House manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq and to discredit anyone who dared to challenge the president."

Building a case for war

In the year leading up to the war, the administration sought to build an argument for the ouster of Saddam by compiling intelligence that the Iraqi dictator was developing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons that could endanger his neighbors, as well the United States.

Libby was an influential voice in devising the Iraq strategy.

During the first Gulf War, Libby served under current Vice President Dick Cheney when Cheney was secretary of defense in the administration of George H.W. Bush.

At the time, Libby was deputy to Paul Wolfowitz, who became deputy secretary of defense in the current Bush administration and was a major proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In early 2002, Cheney sought information about Italian reports that Saddam had tried to buy yellow cake uranium — nuclear weapons material — from the African country of Niger.

The CIA dispatched Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat, to Niger to check out the reports. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who had been a covert CIA agent, had suggested that Wilson undertake the mission.

Wilson, who served as senior director for Africa on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration, concluded that while Iraqis had met with Niger officials, it was unlikely there had been serious discussions of the weapons material. He later reported his findings orally to CIA officers.

State of the Union

Despite CIA skepticism about the uranium claim, White House officials, convinced by British reports, included the assertion in President Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003.

In a 16-word passage in a speech intended to brace the nation for war, the president said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Two months later, the United States invaded Iraq, but troops failed to uncover any weapons of mass destruction.

Angered that the administration had ignored his findings, Wilson began talking to reporters on background after the March invasion. He went public with his objections in a July 6, 2003, opinion piece in the New York Times titled What I didn't find in Africa. Wilson wrote that he believed the vice president's office had been advised of his Niger trip.

The Wilson article came as the White House found itself increasingly on the defensive about the weapons issue.

The controversy over the uranium claim overshadowed the president's trip to Africa in July 2003, during which his top aides acknowledged that the claim should not have been included in the State of the Union.

Stephen Hadley, who was then Condoleezza Rice's deputy at the National Security Council and who is now national security adviser, later took the blame for the inclusion of the uranium claim in the president's address.

Discrediting Wilson

At the same time, White House officials and their Republican allies in Congress sought to discredit Wilson, whom they suggested had exaggerated his role in warning the administration about the uranium.

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the press in July 2003 that the vice president was unaware of Wilson's trip to Africa. A Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2004 also concluded that Cheney had never been briefed on Wilson's findings.

Even before Wilson's article appeared, Libby began looking into the origins of the Niger trip, according to the indictment papers. He discussed Wilson with four government officials, including the vice president and Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who noted that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was involved in the planning of the Niger trip.

On June 23, 2003, Libby mentioned to New York Times reporter Judith Miller that Wilson's wife might work at the CIA, according to the indictment papers. Libby also confirmed to Time magazine's Matthew Cooper that Wilson's wife was involved in sending him to Niger.

After columnist Robert Novak reported in a July 14, 2003, column that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent, the former diplomat complained that his wife's cover had been blown, endangering her life.

The CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate who leaked Plame's identity, setting off the investigation that resulted in Friday's indictment.